Device for preventing successful safe-blowing.



C. B. WOODARD. DEVICE FOR PREVENTING SUCCESSFUL SAFE BLOWING.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.7.19I3.

1,1463226. Patented July 13, 1915.

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C. B. WOODARD. DEVICE FOR PREVENTING SUCCESSFUL SAFE BLOWING.APPLlCATION FILED JAN.7,1913.

1514.6,226. Patented July 13, 1915.

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DEVfCE FOR PREVENTING SUCCESSFUL SAFE BLOWING.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 7, 1913.

1, 146,226, Patented July 13, 1915.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3- COLUMBIA PLANOORAFH $0.. WASHINGTON. D, C.

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DEVICE FOR PREVENTING SUCCESSFUL SAFE-BLOWING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J my 13, 1915.

Application filed January 7, le s. Serial a... 740,635.

To all whom it may concern v Be it known that 1, CHARLES B. WOODARD,citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county ofRobertson and State of Tennessee, have invented certaln new and usefulImprovements in Devices for Preventing Successful Safe-Blowing, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices for preventing successful safeblowing, and has as its object to provide a device which may be appliedto any ordinary safe and which will act automatically to cause apremature e20 plosion of the nitroglycerin, or other charge introducedat the edges of the safe door so that the burglar attempting to breakinto the safe will in all probability be so injured as to be unable toescape. a

The invention contemplates the provision of a device for the purposestated which will be automatically actuated by the introduction of aliquid of any type whatsoever at the edges of the door of the safe, sothat any liquid explosive having the property of being exploded bypercussion will be exploded by the action of a hammer which constitutesan element of the device.

It is one aim of the invention to so mount and actuate the hammer abovereferred to that it will act repeatedly when the actuating means isreleased for operation, so as to insure of explosion of the charge.

For a full understanding of the invention reference is to be had to thefollowing description and accompanying drawing, in which 2- Figure 1 isa perspective View illustrating the manner in which the device isarranged within the door of a safe. Fig. 2 is a perspective viewillustrating the percussion device. Fig. 3 is a view in elevation of themechanism, one of the face plates being removed. Fig. 4f is a top planView of the mechanism. Fig. 5 is a view partly in elevation and partlyin section illustrating the mechanism in normal condition. Fig. 6 is asimilar view illustrating the positions assumed by the various partsimmediately prior to actuation of the percussion device.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followingdescription and indicated in all the views of the accompanying drawingby the same referencecharacters.

In the drawings the numeral 1 indicates a safe and 2 the door thereof.The edges of the door 2 are stepped in the usual manner and the steppedportions of the upper side of the doc'r are formed with grooves 3 whichlead from the ends of the said portions rearwardly at an angle andcommunicate with a groove '4 which extends from the upperstepped portionto z'tn'opening 5 formed vertically in one of the lower steppedportions. At this point it will be apparent that any nitroglycerinintroduced at the upper edge of the door 2 will flow into the grooves 3and be conducted by the grooves 3 to the reference character A, and aswill be apparent from an inspection of the said figure s disposed withina recess formed in the rear face of the door at a point below the 7opening 5 1a the door.

The device includes in its construction, spaced face plates, one ofwhich is indicated by the numeral 6 and the other by the numeral 7.These face plates 6 and 7 are connected at their corners by means ofposts 8 i which serve also to space the said plates and shaped inletopening 12 which, when the v device is in place upon the door of thesafe,

registers with the lower end of the opening 5. This opening 12communicates with the bore 10 and the said block is provided with anoutlet opening 13' located at that end of the bore opposite the end inwhich the percussion pin 11 is fitted. A screw 14L is threaded in theunder. side of the block 9 and engages in a groove 15 formed in theunder side of the pin 11 and by cooperating with one end wall of thisgroove serves to limit the outward sliding movement of the. sald pin.

The pin is normally held by means of a spring 16 disposed between theend of the block 9 and a head 17 at the outer end of the pin,substantially in the position shown in Figs. 3 and 5 of the drawformed.The device also includes a hammer which is arranged to cooperate withthe percussion pin 16 and the head of this hammer is indicated by thenumeral 18 and is supported at the upper end of a leaf-spring 19 whichat its lower end is fixed in a bracket 20 secured upon the face-plate 6.By referring to Figs. 5 and 6 of the drawings it will be apparent thatthe leaf-spring may be sprung to move the head 18 in a direction awayfrom the percussion-pin and it will be apparent that if after havingbeen so moved, the spring is released, the head 18 of the hammer willstrike against the head 17 of the percussion pin thereby sharply forcingthe pin against the end-wall of the bore in which it is mounted.

The invention contemplates the provision of means for successivelyflexing and releasing the hammer spring 19 so as to cause repeated blowsto be struck the percussion pin 16, and this hammer actuating means willnow be described. A shaft 21 is journaled at one end in the face-plate 7and adjacent its other end in a bracket 22 which is secured upon thesaid face-plate, and fixed upon this shaft which rotates therewith is adisk 23 carrying trip-pins 24: which are arranged in a circular seriesand are equidistantly spaced from each other and from the axis of thesaid disk. By referring to Fig. t of the drawings it will be observedthat the pins 24L project in the direction of the face-plate 6 and thatthe spring 19 of the hammer is located between the disk 23 andface-plate 6 and directly in the path of movement of the pins 24:. Thesaid leafspring has its edge which is presented toward the disk 23,cutaway as at 25 so as to clear the pins 24c at times and underconditions to be presently explained. l/Vhile the disk 23 is illustratedas provided with a set of four pins a greater or less number may beemployed, if found desirable, and in order that the number of pins maybe readily varied, the disk is formed with openings 26 into which thepins are removably and interchangeably fitted. It will now be apparentthat as the disk 23 is rotated, the pins 24: are successively swept overthe upper portion of the leaf-spring 19 until they reach the upper endof the cutaway portion 25 thereof, whereupon the leaf-spring may bereleased and the hammer head 18 will be caused to successively strikethe headed end of the percussion pin. It will also be seen that thefrequency with which the spring is flexed and released depends upon thespeed of rotation of the disk 23 and upon the number of pins carried bythe disk.

As will be presently explained, the disk 23 is driven by suitablespring-motor means and in order that the mechanism as a whole may berestrained against operation, under normal conditions, there is provideda detent device which is clearly shown in Figs. 2, 5 and 6 of thedrawing. This device in cludes a rock-member 27 having a finger 28 whichprojects beside the face of the disk 23, and a finger 29 projectsupwardly from the pivot for the rock-member, which pivot is indicated at30. A plate 31 is secured upon the inner face of the face-plate 6 andhas a laterally projecting portion 32 located opposite the upper end ofthe finger A spring 33 is coiled about the pivot 30 and has one endengaging behind the finger 23 and the other end engaging behind thelaterally projecting portion 32 of the plate 31. This spring by reasonof its arrangement, tends to move the finger 29 in the direction of thesaid plate 31. Disposed between the upper end of the finger 29 and thelaterally projecting portion 32 of the plate 31, is a disintegrableelement 34- which is preferably in the nature of a block of chalkalthough any other material which will disintegrate under the action ofmoisture may be found suitable for use. It will be ob served frominspection of Figs. 3 and 5 of the drawings that the end of the block inwhich the opening 13 is formed, is provided with a channel 35 leadingdownwardly from the said opening, and it will be apparent that the lowerend of this channel is located directly above the disintegrable element3% so that any nitroglycerin or other explosive liquid introduced at thetop of the safe door and flowing into the bore of the percussion-blockand out through the opening 13 will saturate the disintegrable element34; and cause its disintegration. It will also be apparent by referenceto Fig. 5 that under normal conditions the rock-member 27 is held by thedisintegrable element 31 in such position that the end of its finger 28will be in the path of movement of the pins 24: and consequently thedisk 23 will be restrained against rotative movement. It will beunderstood, however, that upon disintegration of the element 34 and therelease of the rocker 27 the spring 33 will move the latter to theposition shown in Fig. 6 thereby releasing the disk 23 for rotativemovement under the action of the spring motor driving means, heretoforereferred to and which will now be fully described.

A gear 36 is fixed upon the shaft 21 and meshes with a pinion 37 upon ashaft 33 mounted in a bracket 39 upon the face-plate 7. The shaft 38also carries a gear 10 which is in mesh with a pinion 4:1 upon a shaft4-2 mounted in a bracket 1-3 upon the said faceplate. A gear 44 is fixedupon the shaft 42 and meshes with a pinion 15 upon a governor shaft 4&6.This governor shaft has fixed upon it one head 47 of a centrifugalgovernor 48, the other head indicated at 49 being slidable upon theshaftand being fixed for rotation with a friction disk 50. A bracket is fixedupon the face-plate 6 and has a pair of arms 51 which project toward thedisk 50 and support at their outer ends sleeves 52 which are located atdiametrically opposite points with relation to the shaft 46. Threadedwithin each of the sleeves 52 is a stem 53 carrying a friction foot 54designed to cooperate with the face of the friction disk 50 whereby toretard the speed of rotation of the same. It will be understood, ofcourse, that by rotating the stems 53 the friction feet 54: may beadjusted with relation to the friction disk. The gear 36 is in mesh witha pinion 55 which in turn mesheswith a gear 56 which is fixed forrotation upon a shaft 57 mounted in a bracket 58 upon the face-plate 7.The shaft 57 carries a pinion 59 which meshes with a gear 60 upon apower-shaft 61 to which is connected one end of the motor-spring 62,theothe-r end of this spring being secured as at 63 at one end of anarcua'te shield 6 L arranged between the face-plates 6 and 7. One end ofthe shaft 61 projects through the face-plate 7 and is squared as at 65for the engagement therewith of a suitable winding key (not shown). Thegear 60 isclutched with the shaft 61 by the usual arrangement of pawlsand ratchets 66.

From the foregoing description of the invention it will be apparent thatafter the device has been wound and the disintegrable element 34: hasbeen disposed between the member 32 and the end of the finger 29, andthewhole has been arranged within the recess in the safe door, it is readyfor actuation and requires no further attention. Should one attemptingto gain access to the safe pour a quantity of nitroglycerin or otherliquid explosive into the crack between the upper edge of the safe doorand 'the upper wall of the door opening, this liquid would be conveyedby way of the grooves in the upper edge of the door to the opening 5 andwould, flow into the percussion block and through the opening 14: andonto the disintegrable element 34:. This element, as soon as it becomessaturated, will disintegrate thereby releasing the rocking member 27 andincidentally releasing the disk 23 for rotative movement. As will beapparent from the foregoing, this disk will be set in motion by thespring-motor mechanism and as it rotates the hammer will be successivelyactuated to strike blows against the headed end of the percussion-pin16. While it is natural to suppose that the first blow struck the pinwill serve to explode the charge introduced into the safe, it will beevident that should the first blow fail to accomplish this result theblows subsequently given will serve to explode the charge.

It will be noted that the door is provided, in addition to the grooves 3and 4:, with grooves 3* which are formed in the side edges ofthe door,these grooves serve to conduct the explosive to thegrooves 3 and a inthe event that the safe'is laid upon its side and theexplosive charge isintroduced means for actuating the hammer, andmeans normally restrainingthe hammer actuating located adjacent the liquid outlet and arranged tobe rendered inoperative when "subjected to moisture.

In a device of the class described, a percussion device having a liquidinlet and a liquid outlet, means for actuating the percussion device,"and means located adjacent the liquid outlet and normally restrainingthe actuating means arranged to be rendered inoperative when subjectedto moisture.

'3. The combination with a safe, or the like, of percussion meansarranged therein, for the explosion of an explosive charge, introducedinto the safe, said means operate'd'by contact of the charge with anelement of the means. V

4. In a device of the class described, a percussion element, a hammerarranged to co operate therewith, means for intermittently actuating thehammer, and means normally restraining the hammer actuating means anddisintegrating when subjected to moisture.

. .5. Ina device of the class described, a per cussion element, a hammerarranged to cooperate therewith, a spring for actuating the hammer,means for intermittently tensioning and releasing the spring, and meansnormally restraining the last mentioned means against movement andincluding an element having the property of disintegrat-' ing whensubjected to moisture.

6. In a device of the class described, a percussion element, aleaf-spring, a hammer head carried by the leaf-spring and arranged forcocperation with the percussion element, a rotary trip member arrangedfor cocperation with the leaf-spring to flex and release the same, andmeans normally restraining the trip member from operation including anelement having the property of disintegrating when subjected tomoisture.

7. In a device of the class described, a percussion element, aleaf-,spring-, a hammer head carried by the leaf-spring, a rotatable tripdisk, a series of trip pinscarried by the disk and arranged tosuccessively engage with the leaf-spring and upon rotation of the diskto flex and release the same whereby to cause successive engagement ofthe hammer with the percussion element, means for rotating the disk, andmeans normally holding the disk against rotation and including anelement having the property of disintegrating when subjected tomoisture.

8. In a device of the class described, a percussion element, aleaf-spring, a hammerhead carried by the leaf-spring and arranged tocooperate with the percussion element, a rotatable disk, means forrotating the disk, a series of trip-pins carried by the disk andadjustable as to their position upon the disk, the said trip-pins beingarranged upon rotation of the disk to successively engage with theleaf-spring and Hex and release the same whereby to cause successivecooperation of the hammer-head with the percussion element, meansnormally engaged with one of the pins and restraining the disk fromrotative movement, the said means being movable out of engagement withthe pin, and an element normally holding the said means in engagementwith the pin and having the property of disintegrating when subjected tomoisture.

9. In a device of the class described, a percussion element, a hammerarranged to cooperate with the percussion element, a trip memberarranged to actuate the hammer, a rock-member having a finger engageablewith an element of the trip member Whereby to hold the trip againstmovement, means tending to move the rock-member out of position for suchengagement, and an element for holding the rock-member in position forsuch engagement and having the property of disintegrating when subjectedto moisture.

10. In a device of the class described, a

amazes the outlet opening from the bore and having the property ofdisintegrating when subjected to moisture.

11. In a device of the class described, the combination with a safe, thedoor of which is provided with a recess and with an opening incommunication with the recess and in its edges or steps with groovesleading to and in communication with the opening, oi means arrangedwithin the recess for exploding an explosive charge introduced into thesafe and flowing through said grooves to said opening, said meansincluding a percussion element, a hammer arranged for cooperationtherewith, means for actuating the hammer,

and means normally restraining the actuating means from operation andincluding an element having the property of disintegrating whensubjected to moisture, the said element being arranged in juxtapositionto the opening whereby to be acted upon by the explosive charge.

In testimony whereof I ailiX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES BELL WOODARD.

Witnesses:

J. D. YOAKLEY, SAMUEL N. Acmaa.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissionerv of Patents, Washington, D. C.

